When Harry Met Sela
by Kishi Kat
Summary: Updated! 4-10-04 - When Severus' young daughter is unleashed on Hogwarts chaos ensues. RR, Please?
1. Chapter 1 Someone get a towel!

Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic and WB No copyright infringement is intended, and I make no money off of this. Sela, however is © me, Kishi Kat of Red Panda Productions 

Author's Note: This is my first piece of Harry Potter fanfiction. I don't have a Beta, so please forgive any small spelling errors, I did run a spell check, but it may have missed some. I hope that I have taken an old idea and given it a new twist. You like? Please review. You didn't like? Be polite. (Or I'll feed you to my fish.)

When Harry Met Sela 

They say opportunity knocks but once, but the house elf concerned with the main doors of Snape Manor knew better. Sometimes opportunity knocks several times, yells, and then pounds some more. 

Firra had served the Snape family all her life, and could say without looking who it was that knocked. This time however, it was a foreign knock. She answered and was surprised to see a group of darkly dressed people standing there. 

"May we come in?" a pleasant female voice asked. "It's a little chill out here." 

Firra eyed them. She was suspicious. 

"Who is it?" she asked buying some time to look the group over better. When you lived in times like these you could never be too certain. They wore long dark cloaks and most of them seemed to be very pale, with a shock, Firra realized they were vampires. 

"We have something that belongs to your family." A deeper male voice asked. "We only wish to return it." He pushed a small child forward. She had dark hair and was clutching a toy cat. Firra was distressed, the child looked like she had been through a fire, and indeed, she smelled like smoke and her clothing was singed in places. 

"Firra, who is it?" Giovanni asked as he stepped into the hall. He looked at the visitors and then at the child. 

"Enter freely." he said. Firra glanced up at him, her over large ears waggling. 

"Thank you." the male, obviously the leader of the group, said stepping inside and following Giovanni to another room. The others trailed behind with the child. 

"We had a report of a deatheater attack on one of the clans, we were too late to stop them, but we did find this one. We're certain she's one of your family." 

A tall witch with wild brown hair stepped out of another room. 

"Amalia, could you take care of her?" Giovanni asked as soon as he saw her. 

"Oh! You poor thing...come with me...are you hungry?" Amalia asked as she led the little girl back into the room she'd come from. 

"What is her name?" 

"Seladine. We know she's part of your family, but we only know her father is a teacher at Hogwarts..." 

"Severus. That's his name." 

Firra looked up at Giovanni, "Good sir, Master Severus won't be pleased at this..." 

"It doesn't matter if he's pleased or not. It's his responsibility to take care of her." Giovanni scribbled a note on a piece of paper. "Firra, see that this gets to him ASAP." 

Firra bobbed her head once and disappeared. 

Giovanni sighed heavily. "What happened?" 

The group gave him a brief explanation of what they thought had happened. The deatheaters had surprised the clan and rounded them all up. They had tortured several of the elders, then sentenced the rest to die painfully in a bonfire. All but Sela had been killed, yet somehow she had escaped the deatheater's notice. 

"Perhaps, it was too much bother to hunt down one small child. Or perhaps she simply wasn't noticed." the leader said. 

"I thank you for bringing her to us. She must be in shock from the attack. I'll need to check on her. Please, make yourselves at home." 

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Severus Snape was sitting in a meeting before the start of the new term. It was but one of the things he hated about the beginning of term. Being there a week ahead of time was the other. He was near to dozing off after Binns began his second half hour of speech when the owl dropped onto the table in front of him. Binns continued droning on while several of the others looked at him. 

McGonagall kicked Severus under the table. "What is it?" she whispered. Large tawny owls dropping in on meetings wasn't common. Usually whatever it was could wait. Severus shrugged slightly, taking the letter from the owl. He dropped it onto the table and stared at it. 

Dumbledore looked down the table at him. "What seems to be the problem, Severus?" 

"This is from my grandfather...it has the family seal on it." Severus seemed reluctant to open it. Writing appeared on the outside underneath the address. 

'If you don't open this and read it, it may explode and cause severe injury. I suggest you open it. -G' 

Severus picked it up. Madam Hooch gave a little laugh. 

"He can't be serious...only thing I've ever seen explode have been those Howlers that students get." 

"He's serious." Severus said as he scanned the letter. He sat there staring at it while Binns continued on, oblivious. 

"Bad news? Good news? What?" Hooch said as Severus glared at her. 

"Apparently, I have a daughter." 

McGonagall choked on her water, spraying it across the table all over Professor Flitwick. 

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry!" she sputtered as Flitwick used a drying charm on himself. 

"Quite alright...just...don't let it happen again." 

"Well, that's good news then isn't it? Didn't know you were married..." 

"It isn't and I'm not." Severus snapped. 

"Why ever would it not be good?" Poppy Pomfrey asked. 

"Because not only do I have a daughter, my grandfather insists that she come here." 

McGonagall managed to turn her head before she choked this time. 


	2. Chapter 2 Damn you, Monopoly!

Second verse, same as the first. (That means I still don't own Harry Potter)

-------Chapter Two-------

Giovanni looked at Sela. Sela stared back at him. Not insolently, just, stared. Wrapped in a large towel as she was the only bits to be seen were her head and her feet. Her eyes were a smoke gray color, almost as though someone had diluted her father's obsidian ones. She had inherited the long black hair as well. 

'Dress her up in black and she could scare any Hogwarts student.' Giovanni thought to himself. He knew that he'd have to force Severus to take the child with him. He had thought on it after sending the letter, but it was better for her to get away. The scenery change would do something to alleviate the shock. Amalia was checking to find her some temporary clothing, as everything she had was destroyed. She had absolutely refused to relinquish her toy however and in the end Firra had suggested that perhaps the kitty might like a nice bath the same as Sela did. That had done the trick. The cat was now sitting wrapped in another towel next to Sela, a little singed in the whiskers, but none the worse for it. Sela had insisted that it might get cold. 

Amalia came back from her search. "I found this...it's actually one of Edith's shirts, but I think it will work until we can get her something else. She held up a light blue t-shirt with the words "Veni Vidi Velcro" emblazoned on it. 

"I came, I saw, I got stuck?" Giovanni asked looking at it. 

"Hey, I just deliver the shirts...I don't explain them." Amalia said as she tugged the shirt over Sela's head. "Better?" 

Sela nodded. 

"So? Any word from Hogwarts?" Amalia asked as she sat on the couch next to the toy cat. 

"Albus sent word that Severus will be coming in the morning. Even if he has to drag him down here himself." 

"Heh, that's old Professor Dumbledore for you. Always getting what he wants whether people realize it or not." 

Sela listened as they discussed plans for getting her somewhere to get proper clothing and dozed off as they were discussing what Severus would try in order to get out of returning with Sela to Hogwarts. Amalia glanced over at her. 

"I knew some proper care would send her off. You'd think she'd been starving the way she ate." 

"Living in a colony of vampires will do that to you. I suppose it's a good sign that she's gone to sleep so easily. I expected to be sitting up with her half the night." Giovanni said. 

"Vampires huh? Didn't think of that. Should I try to move her?" 

Giovanni contemplated a moment then shook his head. "No. She'll be fine there. I'll let Firra know to keep an ear open to any trouble." with that he got slowly to his feet and stumped away, leaning on a cane with a silver gryphon on the handle. Amalia watched him go. No one was really certain how old Giovanni really was, but she guessed he was around Professor Dumbledore's age. The only concession he'd made to his age was the lines around his eyes and the streak of gray on either temple. Either way, he was a force to be reckoned with, inside or outside the family. 

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The next morning found Sela sitting with Edith, a witch with blonde hair, and two other children. Sela watched expectantly while Edith picked up the dice. The other children leaned over and whispered to each other. They were twins, a girl and a boy and looked different as day and night. Personality wise, they were a perfect match. 

"Oh, I see you decided to come down from your perch, Edith." Amalia said as she walked in. 

"Shh! I'm trying to concentrate...you're little ragamuffins insisted I play this with them." Edith said waving her hand at the twins. She studied the game board a moment then rolled the dice. "Twelve. Hm..." Edith counted out twelve places and groaned. 

"Dammit! Boardwalk! With how many hotels? Two...yeah." Edith handed over a pile of paper money. 

"Nice doing business with you. Enjoy your stay." Sela said. 

Edith glared at her. While Amalia laughed. 

"Too much like her father for you?" 

"You forget, I had to put up with him growing up. He was possibly the biggest pain in my arse...you remember when he used me as a test subject for one of his concoctions?! I had green and orange striped hair for a week!" 

"Oh, I'd say it was more like three days." a voice said behind them. 

Edith jumped and Amalia laughed. 

"Quit sneaking around like that, Giovanni! Nearly wet myself..." 

"I'm not gonna clean that up." Sela muttered. Edith glared at her. 

"So did Albus chase Sevvie down here? Or did he come all on his own?" Edith asked, feigning sweetness. 

"I think it was more of a 'If you don't go down there, I will make you go and you won't be happy either way." But yes, they've arrived. Which is why I was here. I'd like you to bring Seladine up to the observatory. Got it?" 

Edith watched as the twins rolled the dice and landed on Park Place. "Hah! Now you two are in for it." The twins handed their money to Sela, and Sela handed back change. 

"Heeeeeee-eeey! Why do they get money back?!" 

"It's a two for one special at the Plaza. And kids are cheaper than adults." Sela said, looking at Edith as if she should know better. Giovanni snorted. 

"You see what I mean? Just like Severus." Edith muttered mutinously. "Not only am I stuck being the shoe, she's giving out group discounts!" 

Giovanni cleared his throat. "Did you hear me?" 

"Uh-huh, Seladine, Observatory, Sev here. But first I've got to shove this board game up the muggle inventors butt." 


	3. Chapter 3 You are so spontaneous!

Goodness! Thank you all very much for the reviews! 

Dragonsprincess - Seladine is around 4 1/2 to 5. I figured any younger and she wouldn't be able to get into enough mischief and any older and she'd be too old.

Same disclaimer applies. (See chap. 1)

-------Chapter 3-------

"I'd like to know what makes you think she would be better off at Hogwarts than here. The students would torment her. I've seen it happen to the first years." Severus grumbled. Watching the two older wizards sitting in fat old chairs. 

"Hmmm...I have no worries about that. Just this morning when one of the other children here insulted Sela, called her a bastard believe it or not, she responded by bashing the girl on the head with a plate." 

Severus blinked. "She hit her over the head?" 

"Right before the other girl pushed her off the chair and pulled her hair." 

"Hrumph." 

"That was when Sela did a bit of spontaneous magic and shaved the other girl bald." 

Severus coughed to try to disguise a laugh. 

"Oh yes, where is the other girl?" Albus asked. 

"Hiding in the linen closet on the third floor, right hand side. Won't let anyone see her without her hair." Giovanni answered. Giovanni had an odd talent of being able to tell where anyone in the house was at any given moment. He stopped speaking suddenly and turned toward the wall. He looked at it and seemed to be counting, then he got up and rapped on the wall. 

"If you don't get out of the wall, I'm going to come in there and make you come out. You hear me?" A chorus of muffled 'yes', 'right' and 'uh-huh' came back and now, shuffling out louder than they had coming in. 

"Darn kids. Worse than rats, the lot of them." 

There was a knock on the door. 

"Special delivery! One Sela, hold the anchovies." Edith shouted. 

"Would you just get in here?" Severus snapped. 

Edith poked her head in the door. 

"Ok Sevvie." 

"Don't call me 'Sevvie'" 

"Ok, Sev." 

"Don't call me that either." Severus said with a glare. 

"Ok. No problem Sevvierus." 

"Severus! Say it with me Sev-er-us...can you do that?" Severus growled poking Edith in the forehead. 

"All right! No need to get so touchy Severus! Really. That's behavior most unbecoming of a professor." Giovanni interrupted. 

"If you don't want green stripy hair, you should be nicer." Sela said "Or maybe the colors bring out your eyes." 

"Oooo! You be quiet!" Edith said waving her hands around as she was wont to do when she got excited. 

Sela laughed. Edith glared at her. "You two are a perfect match! She's just as sarcastic as you are." 

Sela looked at Severus. "Did you really make her hair green and orange?" 

Severus crossed his arms and scowled. "That happened in my seventh year...and it was a failure." 

Sela ignored Severus' sharpness. "A failure? Why?" 

"It was supposed to make her vomit copiously." 

"Eeeeeeeeewwwww. Gross." Sela made a face. Albus looked at Giovanni and smiled. "Do you think you could make it work? I've got a couple of people I'd like to give it too!" Sela continued. 

Severus looked at Sela appraisingly. "You are a very odd child." 

"I know. Everyone tells me that. But Leopold told me I had...what was it? 'Mad Skulls? No...Mad Skills!" 

Severus snorted. "Skills? Like what?" 

"I shaved Rieanna bald. Even her eyebrows." 

"Yes and it was a very mean thing to do." Amalia admonished. 

"She started it." 

"I don't care who started it, it's finished." Amalia said with a scowl. 

"You look like him when you do that." Sela said pointing at Severus. 

Edith burst out laughing. "She'll probably be trying to run some sort of Mafia before a months out! Yeah...I can see it now...a five year old's version of the Draconic Order!" 

Giovanni laughed. "I can picture this. 'You! Give me your candy or I'll bite your knee caps off." 

Sela looked at Severus as everyone started laughing. "I hope you aren't as weird as they are. Every once in a while, you just have to take a nap, ya' know?" 

Severus looked back at Sela. "I think you are absolutely correct. You probably will be better off at the receiving end of Hogwarts pranks than here." 

"Hmm...At Hogwarts you will see things that are horrible beyond imagination." 

Amalia fell of her chair at some comment that Edith had snapped off while the two were talking. 

"OW!" she yelled as she landed in a heap, with her robes nearly over her head. "Oh my goodness!" 

Sela looked up at Severus and pointed at Amalia. "Well, maybe not that horrible, but still pretty bad." 

Severus snickered as he watched Amalia straighten herself up. 

"None of you saw that! None of you!" she yelled, looking pointedly at Sela. 

"I didn't see nothing." She said solemnly. 

"We'd best be on our way if we're going to get back to Diagon Alley to get her things." Amalia said quickly trying to regain her composure. Albus and Giovanni said their farewells and Severus followed Amalia to the fireplace. "You're certain you didn't see anything, Sela?" 

"Nopers." Severus looked at Sela suspiciously. 

"So when are you going to tell her about the camera you had hid in your pocket?" he muttered. 

"Never!" Sela said petting her toy cat. 


	4. Chapter 4 A Glimpse of Necromancy

Finally! I got the files off my old laptop and onto my new one! Since it's been such a long time, I'm giving you all TWO chapters! That's right, two!

------Chapter 4-------

Amalia had just picked up the jar of Floo powder when a commotion in the hall drew her attention. By the sound of it, a minor war had erupted between the children. 

"You KILLED him! You knew he couldn't fly!" A girl screamed as the door swung open and she ran in. 

She cradled an odd kitten in her arms, it was pure white, but what made it truly remarkable was the pair of wings on it's back. It was absolutely still. 

"I did not! The stupid thing jumped out the window!" A boy with sandy colored hair yelled back. He was older than the girl by at least six years. 

"What's all this?" Giovanni snapped as three other children came in. They were all crying. 

"Bryan murdered the wierd kitten!" 

"I did not!" 

"You were standing by the window!" 

"Dahlia, what happened?" Amalia addressed the child with the kitten. 

"We came in from playing...and Bryan was holding the kitten, then he dropped it and it fell out the window...I think it's d-d-dead." Dahlia replied. Sela looked at Bryan, then back at Dahlia. 

"Well, what have you to say in your defense?" Giovanni asked looking at Bryan. His gaze said that he would tolerate no lies. 

"I...so what? It's just a stupid cat. It's only got wings because it's stupid idiot of a mother has been hanging around here too long. It was a freak anyway..." He said with a defiant set to his jaw. 

"You're stupid." 

Bryan jumped. He turned to look at the person who had insulted him and was surprised to find Sela glaring at him. 

"What do you know? You're only, what? Three?" he snorted. 

"You're even stupider than I first thought. I'm four and a half." 

Bryan ground his teeth. "Could someone, I don't know, DO something with her? Before I hex her." 

Amalia looked at Sela. "Sela, this hasn't anything to do with you." Sela frowned at her. 

Giovanni was now holding the kitten muttering under his breath. Bryan continued, "How important can some cat be anyway? They get hit by muggle audiomobles all the time, not counting the ones that the muggles put out of their misery. Who does one kitten matter to in the scheme of things?" He turned and glared at Sela again. "What did you just say?" 

Sela didn't answer and stood holding her toy cat close to her. 

Severus snorted. "She said, it matters to the kitten." he drawled. 

"Like a dumb animal has feelings." 

Sela still said nothing, and continued to pet the toy. Albus watched her, noting it wasn't a normal sort of absent petting, it was almost as though she were trying to comfort the thing. Albus managed to get Severus's attention and looked pointedly at Sela, who was now talking to the toy. 

"They won't get you, because they aren't going to find me." She whispered with a shudder. "They got Giddy and Felli and m-m-mother, but not you..." 

"What the heck is up with her?" Bryan said edging away. 

"She's having a flashback, she's had a very traumatic expirence." Giovanni snapped looking up from the now wiggling kitten. "Don't touch her, or you might set her off." 

"A flashback? Please." Bryan rolled his eyes. While what everyone else saw was a room in a house, Sela was seeing her hiding place from less than a week before. She shivered as she hid underneath the house. It was cold and it was musty, not to mention the spiders that ocassionally walked on her. She couldn't see what they were doing, but she could hear plain enough. A group of them walked by, robes rustling. Sela dared not move. 

"They're coming, shhhhhhh..." 

Bryan snorted. "She's crazy! The little freak." 

Sela snapped her head up suddenly and leaped at Bryan snarling like a dog, only Severus's quick reflex saved Bryan from getting worse than a scratch. She hung from Severus's grip by the back of her robes, growling threats. 

"She's bloody insane!" Bryan yelled. 

"I told you to leave her alone." Giovanni said quietly. He walked up to Sela. 

"Sela, look." he held up the kitten in front of her. "They didn't get this one." Sela stopped struggling and stared at the kitten which was wriggling in a mad attempt to get onto Sela's shoulder. Sela looked at it quietly as it managed to balance itself on her shoulder. She reached up and took it down, holding it in her free hand and glaring at Bryan as if he even tried to touch it, he would pay. 

"I want you to do something for me, could you take him to Hogwarts with you? I hear that Madam Hooch is a great flying instructor, and maybe he can pick up something by watching her. Can you do that?" 

Sela nodded her head slowly. 

At a motion from Giovanni, Severus lowered Sela back to the floor. She stood there for a moment before she hid herself in his traveling cloak, crying. He looked at Amalia, half hoping for her to pry the creature off of him, but she just looked back at him. She mouthed the words "She's your kid. You do something." Severus glowered at her. 

"I think we'd best be on our way." Albus said softly. 


	5. Chapter 5 Shopping and the Name Game

I lied...you get three. :D

------Chapter 5-----

Amalia sighed. Severus was in a worse mood than before. Sela had refused to let go of him and he'd been forced to Floo with her clinging to his robes. Once they'd managed to get her to let go of him, Albus suggested that they needed to spend time together and get to know each other. With that he'd promptly gone back to Hogwarts. Amalia had taken care of most of the shopping, as Severus had flat refused to go in Madam Malkins and had disappeared on his own. 

Amalia stifled a laugh when she glanced at Sela clomping along beside her in a pair of dragonhide boots that were at least six times too big for her. She'd insisted that she'd grow into them and no, she didn't want a different pair. The kitten trotted along beside Sela with a string tied around his chest. Sela had been distressed when he'd attempted to take flight after an owl and had tied him so that he wouldn't injure himself. 

"After all," Sela had said, "One of those big brown owls could just chomp him down whole." 

"What's that?" Sela asked pointing at some strange muggle device. A few shops had muggle things, more as curiousity than for use. 

"I'm not entirely sure. It looks like something you're great-aunt would have made up." Amalia said looking at the thing. It was a box with a flat table on it and a long arm that swung over the table. Amalia tentatively gave it a push and the table spun. 

"It's a thing that plays music." Amalia jumped. 

"Severus, I swear one time you will regret sneaking up on people." she said. "How do you know anyway?" 

"I saw one once." Severus offered without any further explaination. 

"Well...play music thing." Sela said poking it with her finger. 

"It needs elekitracy." the shop owner said. "We could charm it to work, but the Ministry frowns on that sort of thing. Misuse of Muggle Artifacts you see." 

"Elektratracy...muggles are wierd." Sela said. 

"We'd better get to Hogwarts...unless that is you'd rather stay here?" Severus said, rather hopefully. Amalia poked him. "What?" 

They walked on to find a place to floo from, Sela following along, puzzling over the music machine. The Ministry said you couldn't charm muggle artifacts...but what if a wizard made a copy of the muggle thing...then it would be all right. The more Sela thought this, the better she liked the idea. At some future point, she was going to make one of those boxes. 

"Come on...quit staring into space and get a move on." Severus pulled her into the fireplace and said "Hogwarts" tossing down the floo powder as he did so. The next thing Sela knew she was standing in what was apparently an office. There were portaits hanging on the walls and they looked down at her. Some smiled, a few whispered to their neighbors and a few weren't there at all. Sela blinked. She had seen some of the wizarding world, but not all of it. This was the first time she'd encountered magical paintings of people. The Estate, which is what the Snape family called their home, had some of hunting scenes and boring things like that. This was much more interesting than watching the fox in the dining room pee on bushes during tea. Sela looked around the rest of the office and noted the various apparatuses and the large red bird. She tightened her grip on the end of the kittens makeshift lead. Sela reached out to take a closer look at one of the strange devices and Severus pulled her back. 

"Don't touch anything...who knows what you'd do to it." Sela looked at him and then back at the device. 

The door opened and Albus Dumbledore walked in. 

"Ah, I see you've made it back," he said with a smile. "and no one got lost in the process." 

Sela was now looking at the bird doubtfully as the kitten crouched on the floor staring up at it. The pheonix stared back at the kitten with something like amusement. 

"Don't even think about it...you have a deathwish, don't you?" Sela said picking the kitten up and moving to the other side of the room. 

Severus looked at Sela irritably. "Why don't you go explore the place? Surely not even you could get permanantly lost." he said. Sela frowned but went out the door anyway. 

"Severus, that wasn't nessecary." Albus said. 

"It was nessesary to me...she hasn't left me alone all day." 

"She likes you." 

"Impossible. No one likes me. Look at how the students behave around me." 

"The students don't like you because, what did that third year Hufflepuff call you? Yes, I remember, he said you were 'an insufferable bully who swoops around the school like a great malevolent bat'" Albus said sagely. 

Severus merely grumbled something about Hufflepuffs and changed the subject. 

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Sela looked first one way, then the other as she stood in the hallway in front of the gargoyle that guarded the headmasters office. She chose to go right and see where it led her to. The kitten followed her, ocassionally flapping it's wings in a mad attempt to defy gravity. 

"I need to call you something...I can't keep saying 'kitten, kitten'. Let me think...it should fit your personality, that's what my m-, well, that's what I heard. How about Flying Monkey?" 

The kitten mewed. 

"Ok, then what about "Chicken Blood"?" another mew. 

"Ratface?" 

"Mew" 

"Dogfood?" 

"MEW" 

By now Sela had wandered downstairs and was walking into the Great Hall. The other teachers were there already, having lunch, Albus had insisted that Amalia stay for lunch at the very least and she'd agreed. 

"I've got a really good one...Vlad the Impaler" 

"MEOW" 

"Hmm...mew mew mew mew meow...I wonder if meow is 'yes'" Sela mused as she walked by Professor McGonagall, who was talking to Amalia. 

"That's her then...what are you doing, child?" McGonagall asked looking at Sela and the kitten. 

"Well, I'm trying to name this kitten, I tried Flying Monkey, and he said mew. I tried Chicken Blood and he said mew. Then Dogfood, but he said mew again. Then I said Vlad the Impaler and he said Meow. I wonder if I should call him that." 

"Do you even know who Vlad the Impaler is?" a witch with a stack of papers on the table in front of her snapped, not looking up. 

Sela nodded, then added "Yes." when she noticed the woman was absorbed in her paperwork. 

"I doubt it." she sniffed. Professor McGonagall frowned. 

"Who is that woman?" Amalia whispered to Minerva. 

"Oh, that's Fredirica Falweather. She's the new Defense teacher...frankly, from her attitude so far I wouldn't mind if a couple of dragons swooped down and carried her off." Minerva whispered back. 

Sela gave the Defense teacher a scowl worthy of her father and snapped out, "Vlad the Impaler, or Prince Vlad Tepes, sometimes called Dracula, was ruler of Wallachia, not Transylvania as is popularly believed. He is principally remembered for his many exectutions and torture performed on people. His favorite method of torture and murder was impalement, hence his nickname." 

"Hmph. You don't understand what you're talking about." Professor Falweather hissed. 

"I do so! Impaling someone means you put a long stick up their ar- bum and let them slide down it. If you do it right, the stick will come out of their mouth. It can take weeks before the person dies." 

"How do you know so much about him?" Professor Trelawny asked. She and Firenze were contemplating sharing the Divinations classes, but it wasn't going well. 

"He was my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great-" 

"Ok ok, we get the point Sela." Amalia chuckled. 

"Great great grandfather. On my mothers side." Sela finished quickly. 

"I see. You also know what he was then don't you?" 

"Yep. He was a vampire." Sela said cheerfully. 

"How could you be so cheerful about it? Don't you know what vampires do? Go on, get out." Falweather said. 

Sela grinned wildly. "Sure I know all about vampires. They like blood, they like the dark, they long fangs like this..." Sela showed her teeth at the teacher. She did indeed have unusally long canine teeth. 

Professor Falweather stared at Sela a moment. "What are you? Some sort of half-blood freak?" 

"She's not half blood." Professor Dumbledore said jovially as he walked by. 

"Then what is she?" 

The other professors looked slightly uncomfortable and many of those who'd been there longer stifled grins. 

"She's full blood." Severus snapped as he stepped into the room. He glowered at Falweather and as he walked by Sela followed him. 


	6. Chapter 6 A Blood Sucking Fiendmaybe

-----Chapter 6-----

Falweather sat very still for a few minutes, then stood and walked over to Albus. 

"Headmaster, I cannot believe that you would allow a vampire in this school...it is a danger to the students!" 

"Severus has been with us for eighteen years and I have yet to have a report against him for something like that." 

"Well, wait...what did you say? Professor Snape is..." Falweather went quite pale. "I was talking about the child." 

"Ah well, I can't expect that she'll attack anyone. She seems perfectly harmless to me." Albus said, looking pointedly at Sela who had crawled under a table and was reading the graffiti carved there by thousands of students. Falweather grumbled and went back to her work. 

"RW was here, 1998, The Marauders - 1975, Pansy Parkinson is a...oooooooh, they're baaad." Sela said crawling back out and going under a different table. 

"CD + CC, ES rules the world - 1978, Mary." 

She crawled out from under the Hufflepuff table and went under the Slytherin table. 

"LM - 1976, GS 1922, what's this?" Sela scooted around to get a better view. "It's a piece of paper." She picked at a corner of it and it began to come free. She tugged gently on the corner and it peeled off entirely. 

"What did you destroy this time?" Severus asked, annoyed. 

"It's a piece of paper with a dragon on it. It has some sort of inscription, see?" she put it on top of his lesson plans. Severus glanced at it, then picked it up. 

"What does it say? What does it SAY?" Sela demanded, prancing on the bench opposite Severus. 

"It says, "Beware those who would face the Dragon's Wrath"." Severus said shortly. 

"Oh. Does it say anything else?" 

"Nothing that concerns you." Severus snapped folding the paper and putting it into his pocket. Sela stuck out her tongue at him. 

"You're mean." She said. 

"I know. It's my job." Severus said scribbling another line onto his lesson plans. 

"When do the other people get here?" Sela asked after about ten minutes of silence. 

"This Sunday." 

Sela watched the kitten flap it's wings wildly. She picked him up. 

"I'm trying to name the kitten. Dragonhead?" 

"Mew." 

"Zombie?" 

"Mew." 

"Icarus?" 

"Mew" 

Sela sighed. 

"Why don't you just call it "Stupid cat that meows too much?" Severus said without looking up from what he was doing. 

Sela narrowed her eyes at him. 

"Vamptor?" 

Silence greeted her newest attempt at a name. The kitten looked at her with a devious gleam in his eye. 

Sela climbed up on the table holding the kitten above her head. 

"I've named the kitten! VAMPTOR!" she yelled. The kitten flapped wildly. 

"I suppose you know what that means don't you?" Falweather said smugly. 

"Um, no. I just said it and he liked it..." 

"It means "Vampire." Falweather laughed. "I don't think you'll miss the irony in that." 

Sela lowered the kitten and looked at him. "A cat named Vampire...pet of a vampire...I think it's cute!" Sela said. Severus looked up at her standing on the table. 

"Isn't that sweet." he said. 

"Really? Sela asked him. 

Severus shook his head. "No." 

"You didn't get hugged much as a child did you?" Sela said. She sat down on the table. 


	7. Chapter 7 Not a Squid

Thankies to everyone who has reviewed! This is going to pretty much cover the entire school year at Hogwarts...so I'm just getting started. :D

-----Chapter 7-----

Saturday found Sela happily exploring the Potions classroom. She peered up at a particularly disgusting lizard-like creature suspended in a purplish liquid and stuck her tongue out in an imitation of it. Severus was ignoring her in the hopes she might go away, but he was discovering it didn't work. So far the little girl hadn't done anything to warrant being yelled at, but as soon as he could catch her at something he'd send her packing. He glanced up and caught the middle of her imitation. 

"What are you doing?" he asked, irritated. 

"Oh, I was just seeing if it was possible for something living to look that way. What's it for anyway?" 

Severus stared at her a moment. Not many people ever asked what the jars were for, of course, most people looked decidedly sick at the thought of them and his personality scared the rest off. 

"They're used to teach-" he hesitated at the word 'idiots', "students...what the creatures they're using in their potions looked like." 

"Before they got chopped into itty-bitty bite size pieces?" Sela asked, turning her head to look at another jar. 

"Yes." He answered. Albus had been right about one thing in their conversation earlier that morning, Sela was a very odd child. 

"The people are coming tomorrow, right?" She asked after a few minutes. Vamptor yawned from his perch on one of the students desks. 

"For the thousandth time, yes. Now, shut up or I'll make you shut up." Severus growled as he continued writing out his schedule. 

Sela didn't speak, but stuck out her tongue at him. 

"If you keep that up, I'll put you in Gryffindor so I can deduct House Points for it." 

Sela just grinned in a slightly cheeky manner and wandered out of the room. 

The next morning, Sela was sitting in the Great Hall waiting for the students to arrive. The professors were finishing up all the last minute things they invariably forgot to do. Sela sang a song to herself to keep entertained. Peeves chose that particular moment to make his first appearance of the year. He carried a bucket full of Merlin knew what. He floated over the tables. 

"Poor ikkle professors...heeheeeheeeee..." then he noticed Sela. "A child? What's a child doing here so early, eh?" 

"Who are you?" Sela asked looking up at the poltergeist. 

"Who are you? Who are you?" Peeves repeated, doing a backflip in midair, balancing the bucket somehow. 

"Well?" 

"Who are you? Whoooooo are yoooou?" Peeves taunted. Sela frowned at him. 

"Don't bother trying to get anything out of him...he's just doing that to annoy you." Professor Sinistra offered. 

"That's all you can saa-aaay." Sela said. Peeves countered with several insults. 

"Peeves smells like an old sock! He likes to hang out with all his gross and smelly friends." Sela countered. 

Peeves looked somewhere between pleased and angry, no one had ever really insulted him back, just threatened him on occasion. 

"You look just like your daaaaaddy...and there's nothing more insulting than being a big nosed, greasy haired, foul tempered git!" Peeves said, dancing in midair. 

"You look just like a lizard. The one in the potions classroom that looks like this..." Sela did her imitation of the lizard, tongue lolling, eyes rolled back and arms and legs at odd angles. 

"Peeves was saving this for some First Years, but I think you should have it instead!" He upended the bucket over Sela's head, drenching her in ice cold lake water with a few handfuls of lake weeds thrown in for good measure. 

"Thank you! Now I don't have to wash!" Sela called after the poltergeist, who cackled something about her greasy hair. She got up and shuffled toward the kitchens, still dripping water and leaving a trail of weeds. She sang a muggle song she'd heard once as she hopped down the stairs. 

"You put the lime in the co-co-nut and shake it all up..." 

"You! You're dripping all over the floor." a voice snarled behind her. Sela turned her head and came face to face with Argus Filtch. "I should make you clean it up...disgusting children..." 

"AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!" Sela turned and charged down the stairs and into the kitchens. She spent the rest of the morning drying out by the fires and snacking as the house elves had taken to her for some reason or another. Perhaps it was because no matter what they gave her she seemed to have a pocket for it and she hardly ever refused anything. 

"The first years are being here now. Mistress Sela told Dobby she wanted to meet them." Dobby said, bobbing his head. 

"Oh! It's that late? I've gotta go!" Sela said, pulling a cookie from her pocket and taking a bite to fortify herself for the climb. The house elves giggled as she shuffled away. She wouldn't have to eat for a week with all the food she was carrying. 

Sela made it to the Great Hall just in time to catch the second through seventh years as they came in, greeting old friends, eyeing old enemies and generally getting resettled into Hogwarts. Sela wandered among them all and was nearly stepped on by a blond haired boy who snarled at her. 

"Aren't you a little young to be here, you little brat?" Hermione noticed the commotion and was thinking about intervening but Sela proved she didn't need any help. 

"You stepped on me, buttbrain. I should squeeze the jelly from your eyes!" Sela said, waving a fist at Draco. 

"Don't you even know who I am?" Draco sneered. 

"From your attitude I'd say you were some relation to that horrible cleaning man." 

"Cleaning man?" Ron said looking at Harry. "Do you think she means Filtch?" 

"That's the name! That's the name! Filtch! The one with the cat." 

Draco's pale complexion darkened in anger. 

"The only difference is that no one beat you with the ugly tree." 

"Enough." Ron, Harry and Hermione winced as the soft voice of their most dreaded professor came from behind them. For once, he wasn't after the Gryffindors. Sela, however, didn't seem the least bit fazed by him. She walked up to him and, rummaging in her pocket, came up with another cookie. 

"Want a cookie?" 

"No. I do not want a cookie. Go." Snape pointed into the Great Hall and Sela scrambled in. Severus followed her and told her to sit at the very end of the Slytherin table where he could keep an eye on her. Sela already knew she would be in trouble once she got back to their quarters. As it was, the Gryffindors were now wondering what that whole episode was about. 

"You're serious? She offered him a cookie?!" a third year asked 

"And he didn't hex her?" Neville asked. 

"Yes, Yes, and No." Hermione answered. 

"I wonder if she's related to him." Lavender said, looking across the room. 

The others all stared at her. 

"What? I mean, she looks just like him, only, well, without the nose and the grease." she whispered the last part to avoid anyone overhearing. 

"Snape? Have a family? I think I'll die." Ron muttered, making choking sounds. The others laughed as Ron continued his act. Sela looked over at them. 

"What? You want to go live with the Gryffindors?" one of the Slytherins sneered. 

"Why not? They must be infinitely more intelligent than you. It must be some sort of code about this house, everyone is either really smart or really dumb." at the confused look on the girls face Sela elaborated, "You were the second one." 

"Oh." 

Sela slipped off the bench and hadn't taken two steps when Severus asked her just where she thought she was going. 

"I want to go visiting..." 

Before Severus could say anything, Madame Hooch stepped in. 

"Visiting? Oh, go on, let her Severus. It's not as if she's going to be burnt at the stake." 

Severus began to protest, but Sela slipped off as he was arguing. She had to wonder if that was what Hooch meant for her to do in the first place. 

"Hello." 

The Gryffindors looked around to find Sela standing next to the table looking at them. 

"Um...hi." Harry said when no one else seemed able to speak. 

"What are you talking about?" Sela asked. 

"We were just talking about how y-" Lavender started and got a nudge from Parvati. "how, yonder lake has a squid in it." she finished, hoping she didn't sound stupid. 

"You were talking about how I look just like Professor Snape." 

"How did you know that?" Ron asked. 

"Well, unless the squid has flaming tentacles there wouldn't be too much to say about him. I've seen him. Not too energetic, is it?" 

"Well...um, are you his niece or something?" Parvati asked. 

"Who? The Squid? No. I'm not a squid." 

"No no no...I meant Professor Snape." 

"Oh...well, he's kinda squid-like at times isn't he?" Sela was distracted, watching her father who seemed quite irate. 

"I'm waiting for him to blow a fuse sometime. I'm Sela, anyway." with that, she ran back to the Slytherin table. 

"Absolutely useless." 

"What do you mean, Harry?" 

"You can't get a straight answer out of that kid. What's she doing here anyway?" he wondered. 

"What do you expect if she's related to Snape?" 

Ron laughed. "Yeah, but she said he was like a squid. She can't be that bad...even if she is a Snape." 


	8. Chapter 8 Ferret Brain!

-----Chapter 8----- 

Sela was just beginning to wonder if there was something she was missing about the houses when the first years came in gaping around at everything. 

Sela munched a cookie and watched them. "Poor kids. Imagine...having to parade in all on your own without knowing what's gonna happen to you." 

"Will you cut that out? You're getting crumbs everywhere." one of the girls muttered at Sela. 

"Oh..." Sela put the cookie back "Sorry." 

Sela blinked as Professor McGonagall put down a stool and a tattered old hat. Sela was pleased when the hat started singing a song that said what each house was famous for. 

Professor McGonagall stood and began calling the children off to come and be sorted. The Slytherins cheered everyone coming to their house and booed or did nothing for the others. Which ended up causing some embarrassment since Sela called out advice to all of the first years. 

"Vintran, Carl" went to Hufflepuff with advice to "Watch out for snakes." 

"Baudon, Emily" went to Gryffindor with advice to "Be careful of the Potions Master" 

And on it went. Finally, Professor McGonagall got to the end of the list. She glanced over at Severus, who seemed not to have cared whether or not Sela was warning people about him and the Slytherin house. 

Sela stood up on the bench and called out, "Can I be sorted too?" 

"Certainly not. You aren't here as a student." McGonagall said. 

"Why not?" 

"Because...once your sorted, you have to stay in that house no matter what." McGonagall said, hoping this would deter Sela. 

"Well, if I had to stay in it for the rest of my life anyway, what difference would it make if I did it now instead of later?" Sela persisted. 

McGonagall glared at the child. She looked at Professor Dumbledore, and he smiled. 

"It might make all the difference in the world, Miss Snape. What if you like something now and decide later you don't like it after all? I think it would be best for all involved if you didn't make it into our esteemed houses just yet." 

Sela nodded, but felt left out. Vamptor poked his head out from under the head table and meowed at Sela. She picked him up, being careful of his wings. 

"Why does that cat have wings?" Professor Falweather, who'd been taking in everything that had happened so far snapped. 

"Because he does. He likes them." Sela said. "We don't like her...I hope you pee on her pillow..." she muttered under her breath. 

A meow was the only reply Sela got. 

She sat at the end of the Slytherin table near the first years. There was a hierarchy at the Slytherin table that none of the other tables really had. The first years were forced into sitting near the high table, with the sevenths at the opposite end. They weren't strictly separated, but for the most part, each year kept to the company of it's surrounding years. Firsts with Seconds, Seconds with Firsts and Thirds and so on. Seladine became bored with the conversations about quidditch and which teacher was worst. Vamptor climbed onto the top of the table and watched her, then mewed. 

"Hey, does he fly?" A hufflepuff sitting near Sela asked. 

"Not yet. I brought him hoping he'd learn something." 

"Not bloody likely. How is a stupid animal supposed to learn something?" 

Sela turned back to find Draco standing there, a look of mild disgust on his face. 

"Where did you live before this? With a troupe of baboons? Get that stupid cat off the table." He hissed. 

Sela looked at Vamptor, who had his wings folded close to his body. 

"No." 

Draco looked at her as if he hadn't quite understood. 

"What?" 

"I said no. And I said no because Vamptor isn't stupid. And living with a troupe of baboons would be much better than living wherever you do since you obviously never learned to keep your nose in your own business." Sela snapped at the somewhat bemused Draco. 

"You're lucky you're Professor Snape's daughter, or I'd-" 

"Don't let that stop you, ferret brain." Sela said, standing up on the bench and leaning closer to Draco. 

"What did you just say to me?!" 

"I said you were a ferret brain!" Sela shouted back. "What's the matter with you? Can't you hear?" 

"You-" 

"That's enough. Sit down you silly girl." Severus hissed. Draco took the opportunity to slink away to parts unknown. Sela looked somewhat ashamed and, instead of sitting down, got off the bench, took her cat and left the hall. 

Sela wandered around in the Entrance Hall, petting Vamptor and trying to calm herself. She was not going to get upset. She would not cry. On her way out, she'd overheard a couple of the Slytherin seventh years speculating on how her mother had bothered with her father and wondering if she'd truly been that desperate. Sela didn't know exactly what they had meant, but she knew an insult when she heard it. She wanted her mother now more than ever. At least she could have depended on her mother. Her so-called father had yet to actually do anything to show that he cared whether or not Sela was even around. She suspected that he disliked her. After about ten minutes, Sela went back into the Great Hall, but wandered around the room instead of sitting back down. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts and miseries that she completely missed the fact that her father was watching her. 


	9. Chapter 9 Why?

AN: I wasn't entirely sure that I liked the way the story was going, so I went back and changed some things before I posted. The way I had it written before made Seladine a little bit too cheerful for having just lost her mother. She's resilient, but not in denial.

----Chapter 9---- 

After a bit of the conversation had died down, it was time for the students to head to their dormitories for the night. They had their first classes the following morning and for the sixth year Gryffindors it promised to be torment. They had Potions first thing. Sela couldn't understand why they were all so glum looking as they left, until one of the other teachers muttered something about potions class. She wondered if she should follow the students or if she should just stay where she was so she chose the latter. If she was wrong someone would send her away, they always did. The professors started to go their separate ways and Sela hurried along and followed Severus down to the dungeons. 

"Are there any mice?" Sela peered into a grate as if she were looking for any that might be hiding. 

"No." 

"Why not?" 

"No doubt some vigilant Slytherin cat has decided to eat them all. Now do stop asking all these insipid questions." Severus hissed at her. Sela hissed back like a cat. 

"Stop that." Severus growled. 

"Why?" 

"Don't you ever stop asking questions?" Severus snapped as he unwarded the door to his personal quarters. 

"No. Why?" Sela asked, following him through the door. 

"Now you're just doing that to annoy me." Severus grumbled as he lighted the place with a muttered spell. Sela looked around the place, she still wasn't familiar with it. There were books and papers all over the place. Not just in bookcases, but on tables, chairs and some were even in the corner of the room. There was also some odd contraptions tucked in here and there and Sela wouldn't swear to it, but she thought she saw a mouse in a jar. 

"Of course. Why don't you like the Gryffindors?" she asked, examining a magnifying glass and effectively making her eye look thirty times bigger than it really was. 

"Because they are pestilences, like you." Severus snapped, taking the magnifier from her and putting it on a shelf. 

"I knew you liked me deep down." Sela said sarcastically as she climbed onto a chair. Vamptor was nosing around the stacks of books in the corner. Severus looked over at him. 

"If you so much as THINK about doing anything to those, you can count yourself wingless." he snapped. He wasn't in a mood to have some hairy nuisance urinating on or clawing his books. Then again, Severus was rarely in that sort of mood. The cat looked at him and meowed loudly. Severus rolled his eyes, grabbed the cat and tossed him through a window. Sela stared at him. For a split second Severus cringed inside, he'd forgotten about her. Half expecting her to go stark raving mad he was surprised when Sela asked about the window. 

"Where'd you get windows in a dungeon?" 

"We're not IN the dungeon. Not now anyway. This is the floor above." Severus said as he stalked into a different room, hiding his relief at Sela's apparent lack of concern about the cat. He turned his thoughts to the problem at hand. She couldn't keep sleeping on the couch as she'd done the night before. He'd have to do something about it soon. Sela was annoying and asked far too many questions. Somehow though, she reminded him of himself. 

Sela was staring through the window at the grass outside. It was dark and she couldn't see very far, but she was sure she could hear Vamptor sneaking around outside. 

"Doesn't the water come in when it rains?" she asked when she heard Severus return. 

"No." 

"Why not?" 

"Because there is a spell on it. Are you in a wizarding school or not? Use your head, girl." 

Sela looked appropriately chastised. 

"So what do we do tomorrow? Do I have to stay here like a hermit?" 

"I don't trust you to be in here without destroying something valuable." with that, Severus walked into his own room and closed the door. He had to get away from that child before he lost his mind! A little inquisitiveness was to be expected, but this child never stopped. 

"Vamptor! When you're done out there you better come inside." Sela called out quietly and was answered with a mew from the cat. She walked over to the couch and flopped over onto it. Eventually, she was going to have to convince her father that she needed an actual bed. The couch wasn't bad, but it was annoying when one rolled off of it. 

Even as Sela fell asleep, the Gryffindors were discussing her. 

"So she's really Snape's kid?" 

"She must have really bad karma." Parvati said, looking through her copy of Witch Weekly. 

"Well, you know if Snape gives us too much trouble, we could always do something to her..." a second year mumbled. 

"That's cruel!" Hermione said. 

"It'd serve him right! Always taking away points for stupid things..." the boy sulked. 

"Um...that might not be such a good idea, you know." Ron said hesitantly. 

"Why not?" 

"I found out from my mum over the summer that Snape has some sort of connection with the Draconic Order." 

"You mean those weird foreigners who keep going on about how to stop You-Know-Who?" 

"Yeah. Apparently, the greasy git's related to them somehow." 

"So what're you sayin' Ron? That Snape'll sic them on us?" 

Ron fidgeted. He didn't want to say it, but he'd have to. 

"Mum said they put some sort of spell on their kids. You know, so that most really horrible stuff won't hurt them...she kinda did the same thing to us with this all-encompassing protection spell this summer." he mumbled, hoping they wouldn't hear him. 

"You're joking. You're mum put a protection spell on you?" 

Ron looked slightly embarrassed. Mostly protection spells were used with very young children to keep them from seriously hurting themselves. It was almost as bad as having a babysitter at the age of eighteen. 

"You know what I heard? I heard that the kid is a vampire." 

The group looked at the speaker, and were mildly shocked it was Neville. 

"One of the new professors said that she had it reliably from the Headmaster himself. And she also said that Professor Snape was one too." Neville looked nervously at the window. 

There was silence for a few moments, then Hermione snorted. 

"You don't really believe that do you? I mean, if they were vampires, wouldn't they have attacked someone by now?" 

"I guess you're right, Hermione, but I'm going to carry some stuff with me to keep them away." Neville said resolutely. With that, the conversation ended and everyone started drifting toward their dormitories. Some of them more apprehensive than others to go upstairs and sleep, fearing an attack in the night. Hermione shook her head. 

"What?" Harry asked. 

"They're just jumping to conclusions. No one can get in here without the password." 

Harry shrugged and said goodnight, making his way up to the now familiar room where he and the other Gryffindor sixth years slept. 


	10. Chapter 10 Attack!

----Chapter 10---- 

The next morning brought the first dreaded potions class of the year. It was even worse than usual because Neville was wearing garlic strung under his robes and smelled like an Italian restaurant. The Gryffindors walked in and were surprised that the Slytherin's didn't immediately start something with them. Harry glanced at the front of the room and saw why. Seladine was sitting at her father's desk, apparently on a large stack of books to be able to see over the top of it. She stared at Draco Malfoy, who was staring back at her. The effect was disconcertingly like Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy shrunk down somewhat. At least that's what Ron whispered. Harry thought Seladine looked more like a basilisk or something. She slowly turned her head and looked at Harry. 

"Good morning. I see everyone finally made it in. I was getting worried that you weren't coming." Sela said. She scribbled on a bit of parchment with a quill and then sat it down. Harry looked at Hermione and Ron as if they might have some explanation of why the Potions Master was nowhere to be found. Hermione sighed, and then raised her hand. 

"What, Miss..." Sela glanced at the parchment, "Granger?" 

"Where is the Potions Master?" 

"He's grumpy." 

Several of the class giggled quietly. 

"But WHERE is he? We already knew that." 

"He's grumpy AND he's on his way." Sela amended. 

Hermione looked at Harry. Harry mouthed 'No straight answers.' to her. In the end they decided just to sit and wait for Snape to show up. Which was a good idea in the end as not three seconds after they'd seated themselves, Snape swooped into the room. Shockingly he walked straight up to his desk, glared at Sela, then reached down and pulled a book out of her stack causing her to fall off the chair and land on the floor with a mumbled statement. 

"What? I couldn't hear you." Severus drawled, flipping through his plans. 

"I said "You're Welcome."' 

Harry would have almost sworn Snape might have grinned slightly. Before he could get a second opinion, Snape had found what he was looking for and was telling them all to turn to page 435 in their books. 

Since she had no book, Sela decided to investigate the rest of the potions lab. She wandered around watching the students as they worked. As she passed by Neville, she stopped and sniffed. 

"I think you really ought to lay off the garlic." was the only statement she made to him. 

Neville looked as nervous as a long tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs. Sela looked at him and he twitched ever so slightly. 

"You're making me hungry." 

Neville whimpered. 

"AND if you don't pay attention to what you're doing you're going to kill someone." Sela reached up and relieved Neville of his knife, which he was holding in a trembling hand. "Either that or you're going to stab yourself. Always hold it point downward toward the table. Gah." 

Sela put the knife on the table and walked away. Neville looked as though he might be sick. 

"When did she start being the teacher around here? She can't even read yet and she's giving us instructions." Malfoy grumbled to his neighboring Slytherins. 

Sela frowned at him. She didn't like Draco. Not one tiny iota. 

Sela peered over the edge of the table at Hermione. 

"May I borrow your book for a moment? I'll give it right back." 

Hermione looked at the book, then back at Sela. She wasn't quite sure what Seladine was going to do with it. She handed the Sixth year potions book to the child. 

"Thank you." Sela said, flicking through the pages at random. She meandered her way over to Draco, looked up at him coolly, then using the book as though it were a cricket bat, calmly whacked Draco in the kneecap as hard as she could causing general mayhem and instantaneous trouble for herself. Even as her father went off on her, she didn't seem as though she really cared. He stopped speaking suddenly and stared at her. 

"You aren't even listening." 

"Yes, I am. Not listening and not caring are two different things." 

"I will deal with you later." Severus hissed. The Gryffindors didn't like Seladine's chances. Sela nodded, looked at her feet, then shuffled over to replace the book on Hermione's table. 

"And Twenty points from Gryffindor, for allowing your books to be used as a weapon." Severus snapped and turned to deal with Draco, who was sitting on the floor howling about his leg. Sela sat on the floor and stared at Draco contemptuously. 

"He's not going to die. He's just a big baby. I bet he wears nappies." She muttered. Severus glared at her, told Crabbe to help Draco to the Infirmary and told the class to get back to work. All went normally until about five minutes before the bell rang. 

"Longbottom." 

"Yes, sir?" 

"Five points from Gryffindor for smelling like a garlic bulb." 

Neville whimpered slightly and continued trying to clean up the mess that was his potion. Harry looked across the room at Seladine. The bell rang to let class out and as the students filed out of the room, Severus looked at his daughter. 

"Why?" 

"Because I could." 

"That's not a good reason." 

"Because I could and you weren't supposed to take house points..." 

"But I can, and I did. Do you have any idea what you just did?" 

"I whacked Draco Malfoy in the knee with a sixth year potions book." 

"Exactly." Severus stared at the girl. "Why?" 

Sela didn't know what to say. "Because he was mean to me?" 

"Hrm." 

Taking that as a 'wrong answer', Sela tried again. "Because he and the other were talking about my mother." 

At this, Severus had to admit she had a point. He'd suspected she'd been trying to hide her grief from everyone, but this confirmed it. His attention was caught by the next thing she said. 

"What was that?" 

Sela looked up at him, "I said, 'and because you don't like me.' Why don't you just make me clean the lab or something and get it over with. Why do I have to explain?" 

Severus said nothing, just continued to stare at her. It was disconcerting in the very least. 

"Tell the truth, Seladine." 

"I did!" 

"No, you only told half of it." 

"I..." Sela looked at her feet, trying to think. He was right. 

"I don't know why, but...he's no good. He was like the people who attacked mother." Sela said quietly. 

With that admission, Severus leaned back in his chair and smirked. Sela looked up at him, unable to comprehend why he seemed pleased. 

"Aren't I in trouble?" 

"Oh, you are, don't make any mistake about it." 

"Then what do I have to do?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"Whenever I misbehaved at home, mother used to make me do something. Chores and stuff." 

Severus contemplated this idea. To Sela's surprise, he suddenly chuckled. It was an odd occurrence, but something about Draco Malfoy getting beaten up by a little girl amused him to no end. Of course, he'd still think of something to punish her with, but not right now. 

"Can I go with the others?" Sela asked suddenly. 

"The only thing you could do is take up space and annoy the oth-" Severus stopped and considered this new angle. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. That idiot Longbottom probably thought he was safe with that half ton of garlic he was wearing. Not to mention Potter seemed disturbed by Sela for some reason or another. 

"Alright. You can go." No sooner had Severus said so, than Sela was through the door and down the hallway. He smirked. A five year old attacking Draco Malfoy. He wondered what that would do to the Malfoy family's reputation. Nothing good, he imagined. 


End file.
